A woman who was force fed bootleg alcohol and repeatedly raped by her scientist father from the age of 11 has told of her childhood from hell in a devastating new book.
On the face of it, Kim Chown, now 56, from Darlington, County Durham, was the daughter of a respectable scientist and university lecturer who worked around the developing world, moving from Nigeria, Sudan and Brunei to Papua New Guinea and the Atlantic island of St Helena.
But behind closed doors, tragic Kim lived a life of forced depravity, rape, sexual abuse and botched DIY abortions all at the hands of her paedophile father.
Francis Beaumont, known as Bernard, a microbiologist and histology expert who was an ‘esteemed lecturer at universities around the world’, even threatened to dissolve his daughter in an acid bath if she ever told of the sickening years of abuse she had suffered.
Kim’s parents married in 1960, and she spent her early years in Nigeria and the Sudan with both her parents, who separated in 1968, with her mother taking her four children back to Leeds.
At the age of 11, Kim’s father took her away for what was meant to be a six-week holiday to Kenya, but he kept her with him to endure a sickening catalogue of abuse.
In 2018, he was finally brought to justice and jailed for 20 years for five counts of rape, after Kim’s husband eventually persuaded her to report him to the police.
Kim Chown, who lives in County Durham, has opened up about the horrific abuse she faced a the hands of her scientist father Francis Beaumont throughout her young teenage years. Kim is pictured at 15 with Beaumont in Africa
Kim Chown, now 56, has written a book entitled Who Will Believe You? detailing her abusive childhood and how her father told her he’d dissolve her in acid if she told anyone he’d raped her
Her late mother, who died of a heart attack in 2007, was also emotionally and mentally abused by her father and ‘struggled with life’, according to Kim.
Kim’s book, entitled Who Will Believe You? details how she was taken thousands of miles from her home in Leeds to Nairobi, Kenya to live with predatory Beaumont.
She was forced to endure years of horrendous sexual and mental abuse and as a young teenager underwent two abortions.
Beaumont, 82, was finally brought to justice in May 2018 and sentenced to 20 years for five offences of rape
Bernard Beaumont forced her to drink home brewed beer and wine laced with pure alcohol which he took from the laboratories where he worked, and dressed her up in adult lingerie before raping and abusing her for hours on end.
‘My dad would make me wear suspenders belts, stockings and high heels,’ said Kim.
‘He went through these strange rituals where he would make me get drunk and forced me to listen to the same Pink Floyd record over and over again whilst he raped and abused me.
‘Then I would have to get up, put my uniform on and go to school whilst he lay in bed sleeping it all off.
‘He told me I would be dissolved in acid if I ever told and that the only thing that would be left of me would be my teeth. Nobody would ever know that I existed.’
When she was just 15-years-old, and despite being forced to take the contraceptive pill, Kim became pregnant and had to endure the harrowing ordeal of having an abortion in an African country where the procedure was illegal.
The following year, Kim again fell pregnant, but this time she said her father wanted to keep the baby and live as a family.
Bernard Beaumont forced her to drink home brewed beer and wine laced with pure alcohol which he took from the laboratories where he worked. Beaumont and Kim are pictured in Africa when Kim was 16
Kim lived a life of forced depravity, rape, sexual abuse and botched DIY abortions at the hands of her paedophile father. Kim is pictured as a child in Africa
Kim was taken thousands of miles from her home in Leeds to Nairobi in Kenya aged 11 to live her with her father. Pictured, Beaumont in Africa
Kim said: ‘I had to have an abortion when I was 15. I couldn’t believe it when I was pregnant again less than a year later. This time he wanted to keep the baby and play happy families.
‘Having an abortion was traumatic, but there was no way I was going go through with his plan. A friend helped and he arranged an abortion.’
Kim said her dad ‘liked to give the impression she was a man-eater’ who would ‘seduce any male who stepped foot over the threshold’.
‘The reality was, I was so shy, I could barely look anyone in the eye, let alone flirt with them,’ she said.
Kim added that having her sister Lucy join them in Kenya and having people over to stay ‘made no difference’ to her father’s routine of raping her ‘most nights’.
‘It also never occurred to me tell Lucy either – I was utterly within my father’s control and after six years couldn’t remember a time when I wasn’t being raped.’
Following her second termination, Kim returned to the UK. Her father took up a microbiologist post in Brunei and Kim thought her nightmare was over.
But bizarrely, sick Beaumont gave up his high-flying science job and opened a chip shop in Leeds.
Kim said: ‘I begged him to let me come back to the UK because I couldn’t get a job in Kenya. So, I eventually came home in 1985. Dad owned a house in Guiseley, near Leeds which he rented out, but it was empty. So, I went and stayed there.
‘But he followed me and two weeks later, he turned up at my door. He came back and raped me again.
‘He was following me around raping and abusing me. I couldn’t get away. I was trapped.
‘Just like in Africa, he told me that I could never tell anybody and even if I did, he was a respected scientist and university lecturer, nobody would believe me over him. This is why I called my book, Who Will Believe You?.’
At 21-years-old, Kim met her husband Jonathan, a meeting that would signal the end of the abuse.
She married Jonathan in 1991 and went on to have a lasting marriage with two children and one grandchild.
Since the launch of her harrowing life story in April, Kim has had messages from abuse survivors from all over the world. But it wasn’t until 2015 that her husband persuaded her to go to the police.
Beaumont, 82, was finally brought to justice in May 2018. At Leeds Crown Court, he was locked up for 20 years after a jury found him guilty of five offences of rape between 1979 and 1985, and received a 20 year sentence.
Kim bravely waived her right to anonymity in the hope of becoming an ambassador for abuse victims.
Her book is a no-holds-barred account of her life and how she has overcome her trauma to build a happy and successful life.
Kim added: ‘The book is primarily about closure for me. But it is also to raise awareness of this largely hidden, dreadful scourge on our society.
‘It is so important that people can report this and that they are going to be listened to.’
Kim, who now lives in County Durham and runs a successful business, has been sober for four years since going into rehab shortly after reporting her father to the police.
Kim, pictured at the age of 12 forced, was to endure years of horrendous sexual and mental abuse during her time in Africa
When she was just 15-years-old, and despite being forced to take the contraceptive pill, Kim became pregnant and had to endure the harrowing ordeal of having an illegal abortion
At 21 years-old, Kim met her husband, Jonathan, a meeting that would signal the end of the abuse. Kim is pictured with Beaumont at the age of 21
Kim, pictured with her husband, runs a successful business, has been sober for four years since going into rehab shortly after reporting her father to the police
Kim bravely waived her right to anonymity in the hope of becoming an ambassador for abuse victims
Who Will Believe You? published by Bonnier Books UK.